‘Starting A Business’ Advice I Would Have Told My Younger Self
I am just starting out my own business so pretty much like you, I am also feeling my way towards one. However, I have personally seen many people succeed in starting a profitable business. This includes my mother. I would try to tell you the things I learned from them. Maybe, you could get some pointers from them.
You Don’t Need A Lot of Money To Start A High Earning Business
The Man Who Hired Himself:
I know of a man who came from an economically disadvantaged province. He went to the big city so he can improve his economic life. He also has a low education which prohibits him from having a good position in a company.
He does not have a lot of money to study or open a high capital business. Instead, he got all sorts of jobs he can find from his neighbors. One of the skills he developed in spite of his lack of education was in repairing home appliances.
Lacking enough money to support himself, he would travel by bicycle from customer to customer to repair their appliances. Sometimes, when I return home from my office work and would rest in the balcony, I would see him returning home in his trusty old bicycle.
A Lot Of Investment In Hardwork:
He would be sweaty since he would be traveling under the heat of the sun all day. His tools also contributed to the weight he was pedaling in his bicycle. I was definitely ahead of him in social status and income but deep down inside I envy him.
He was the boss of himself and he made his own rules. He could work as hard as he can to earn as much money as he can. Meanwhile, no matter how hard I worked in my job, I would still be getting the same salary.
Sometimes, He would talk to me and tell me how jealous he was of me because I had a good and stable job. I would then tell him that I was actually jealous of him because he was the master of his destiny and answers to no one.
But I see the signs of success in him. He would bring home junk appliances and work all night repairing them. This not only improved his knowledge but made him a master in his business. While others relaxed, he learned.
A Profitable Business In Just A Few Years Time
To make a long story short, he was able to hire another appliance repairman soon. Then he was able to hire another. His apartment became his workshop and he paid and also fed his two employees.
They worked hard. I was in the top apartment and I could hear them talking even late at night.
They chatted about how to fix the appliances they were repairing. They also listened to music well into the night. They were however careful not to disturb their neighbors so much.
I hardly talk to him anymore but I see him now driving an expensive SUV. One of my neighbors told me that he now has a formal shop and store were besides repairing appliances, he also sells second hand appliances as well as spare parts.
I lived in that apartment for about three years. Before I even left, He was already gone. My neighbor told me that he has actually bought a house and no longer lives in an apartment. In three years time or maybe even less, he was able to open a profitable business and afford a house.
You Don’t Need Connections, You Create Them
A Foreigner In A Foreigner Land, But Popular:
A lot of people think that you need connections in order to start a business. This is not true. When I first migrated to Australia, I struggled to make friends because I was a newcomer in a foreign place and thought that meeting new people was difficult.
Then I met another recent migrant in Australia. At first he had only a few friends because like me, he was a foreigner in a foreign land. But pretty soon, he had a lot of friends and was busy socializing.
There would be times when while speaking to him, there would be call in his mobile phone. It would usually be one of his friends or contacts who wants to talk to him. This was a very common thing with him.
I asked him what was his secret for making a lot of friends and contacts even though he just arrived in the country. He told me that there was no secret. You must simply reach out to people.
He said to me that every people he met enabled him to meet other people as well. This is because when you begin to know somebody, you also begin to know their friends who in turn introduce you to their friends as well.
A Lesson From Him:
In short, every contact you make could be a doorway to knowing another person or even hundreds or even thousands of people.
He sells insurance and real estate and according to him, he never runs out of prospects. But according to him, he never sees his friends as just prospects and contacts. He said that he sees them as helpful friends.
Most people are scared of meeting new people or of even reaching out to people even in times of need. But what I found from personal experience is that people tended to be helpful. Many people, even though they are busy, will give their time to you.
On The Fear of Rejection:
Most people cannot stand rejection. There are people who literally kill themselves if a person they like rejects them. This is especially true when the rejection is public. No one wants to think they are unworthy for someone else.
When I first started out trying to create contacts for myself, I was really scared. This was true during the old days when communications technology is still primitive. Now, we have mobile phones and the internet.
These devices enable us to instantaneously know the status of our importance to people. If people do not particularly care about us they would refuse to answer back. They could also answer back only after a long while.
This means that people do not really value communicating with us. Rather than be brokenhearted or depressed and feel unworthy, we could just pick ourselves up and move on to our next contact.
In the age of mobile phone and internet it is easy to find people to establish a connection to. People starting out their businesses should not despair when people do not want to communicate with their business either as a customer or as a contact.
It is just a reality of life: There are just too many people who want to attract attention for themselves and their business. Don’t take it personally if your attempts at creating business contacts and customers fail initially.
This is Why You Need An Online Presence:
The fear of rejection is so all encompassing in other people that even an online presence is a big no to them. They fear the negative feedback that would happen when they try to post on social media or in their attempt to create online content.
There are two things that people need to consider about having an online presence. The first one is that there are just plain nasty people who are just out there to make the lives of other people miserable.
They are commonly called “Trolls”. They have very nasty online posts that attack people. They seem to find fault in a person no matter how positive the person is. There is a theory online that these trolls are socially inept in real life.
These people use the internet as an outlet for their frustrations. My advice is not to mind them. If you let their mean or nasty words get to you, they could ruin not only your business but you as well.
The second thing you need to consider in having an online presence is that online communications is very impersonal. This makes it easy for people to say to you what they really want to say because they do get to talk to you face to face.
Insults, rejections, unsolicited advice and many others would come to you by the way of your online connections. Do not be disheartened however, this is just a reality of life and everyone experiences it.
You Need To Be Thick Skinned:
Being in business means contacting people and facing what they have to say to you. In a perfect world everyone would be nice and courteous to one another. We however, do not live in such a world. People can be mean and nasty.
If you are not thick skinned or unable to develop one, you shouldn’t be in business. This is especially true when you are getting successful in business or in any aspect in life. The more you become successful at anything, the more there would be people who would be jealous and nasty with you.
The trick is just to ignore them. For example, there are many online personalities who do not read any comments about them. The comments may be good or bad, but they don’t care. They just go about their day working on their business.
I am fairly thin skinned too. I get my fair share of harsh criticisms too. If I get a harsh comment I tend to feel bad too. This is why I just quickly scan the comments made on me and if they are harsh, I do not continue reading them anymore.
The Fear of Failure
My mother tried a lot of small businesses and many of them were failures. She finally found a business that helped our household finances tremendously. Not to scare you, but my mother is one of the lucky ones.
I have met people who have tried setting up their own businesses. The results have been mixed. I personally know of a few who have tremendous success starting a business. I also know of people who miserably failed at starting a business.
I personally attempted starting small business. I tried making and selling physical products. I also tried online businesses. My small business experiments were a mixed a bag. There were failures and a few showed promise.
But I learned that business is a learning process. It is normal for a business to fail. Just like many undertakings in like, business is a calculated risk. The risk is accounted for and planned but it is definitely still a risk. Risk means unreliable.
Risk Is A Part Of Business
When something is unreliable, there is a risk of failure. Perhaps one of the greatest example of this is Masayoshi Son, the chief executive office of SoftBank. He is also to date, the second richest billionaire in Japan.
Masayoshi Son is famous for risking a lot of money backing up startup businesses. He has lost billions in the process and has also made billions in the process. It is a general knowledge that up nine out of the ten businesses he backs fail.
But it takes only one successful business or investment to recoup and even exceed in income all his nine loses. He is not alone. There are many business investors who invest in business that eventually fail.
But all they need is one successful business to make them enough money to support their other business investments. This is common knowledge to many now rich businesspeople and investors, but this may be new to you.
The Final Factor
Perhaps the greatest trait a person needs to start a business is just plain Determination. I could maybe state about a dozen more reasons why people don’t start their own business. But unless you really want to start a business, you would find excuses not to start one.
Unless being your own boss is an all consuming desire of yours, chances are you will stick to your day job, do your work, and then relax after your workday is finished. There are many people who do not want to start a business. Rather, they want to be a boss of a business.
This means that you might be making a mistake in starting a business. If your idea is to become a boss to maybe increasing your income and to have prestige, you might be looking at being a businessperson entirely wrong.
When you start your own business, you not only become the boss of the business but the servant of your business as well. You get to do everything when you start a business. Maybe you are better off doing your best to get promoted in a company so you can just be a boss.
Conclusion
I have stated many reasons why people do not start a business. There is the perception that you need a large amount of capital. There is a perception that you need to begin with plenty of business contacts and customers already.
Then there is the fear of rejection and failure. As stated, there are many ways to combat the feeling of rejection. It is also stated that failure is a common thing in business. Business failure is a learning process and can even be a badge of courage.
But what is important is to just start. Your first business might fail but be sure to learn. Most of all, think of business as a learning process. Always make sure that you are able to start another business in case your current business fail. It just makes sense.
You might also like to read the article: Career Advise I Would Have Told My Younger Self.